< Esther 7 >

1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's dinner.
And the king cometh in, and Haman, to drink with Esther the queen,
2 At this second dinner, as they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther again, “What are you really asking for, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What do you want? You shall have it, as much as half my empire!”
and the king saith to Esther also on the second day, during the banquet of wine, 'What [is] thy petition, Esther, O queen? and it is given to thee; and what thy request? unto the half of the kingdom — and it is done.'
3 Queen Esther answered, “If the king looks on me favorably, and if it please Your Majesty to grant me my life, that is my request; and the lives of my people, that is what I ask.
And Esther the queen answereth and saith, 'If I have found grace in thine eyes, O king, and if to the king [it be] good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request;
4 For my people and I have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had only been sold as slaves, I would have kept quiet, because our suffering would not have justified disturbing the king.”
for we have been sold, I and my people, to cut off, to slay, and to destroy; and if for men-servants and for maid-servants we had been sold I had kept silent — but the adversity is not equal to the loss of the king.'
5 The king asked Queen Esther, demanding to know, “Who is this? Where is the man who has dared to do this?”
And the king Ahasuerus saith, yea, he saith to Esther the queen, 'Who [is] he — this one? and where [is] this one? — he whose heart hath filled him to do so?'
6 “The man, the opponent, the enemy, is this evil Haman!” Esther replied. Haman shook with terror in front of the king and the queen.
And Esther saith, 'The man — adversary and enemy — [is] this wicked Haman;' and Haman hath been afraid at the presence of the king and of the queen.
7 The king was furious. He got up, leaving his wine, and went out into the palace garden. Haman stayed behind to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he realized the king planned an evil end for him.
And the king hath risen, in his fury, from the banquet of wine, unto the garden of the house, and Haman hath remained to seek for his life from Esther the queen, for he hath seen that evil hath been determined against him by the king.
8 When the king came back in from the palace garden to the dining room, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Queen Esther was. The king shouted out, “Is he even going to rape the queen here in the palace, right in front of me?” As soon as the king said this, the servants covered Haman's face.
And the king hath turned back out of the garden of the house unto the house of the banquet of wine, and Haman is falling on the couch on which Esther [is], and the king saith, 'Also to subdue the queen with me in the house?' the word hath gone out from the mouth of the king, and the face of Haman they have covered.
9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “Haman set up a pole beside his house for Mordecai, the one whose report saved the king's life. The pole is fifty cubits high.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered.
And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, saith before the king, 'Also lo, the tree that Haman made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, is standing in the house of Haman, in height fifty cubits;' and the king saith, 'Hang him upon it.'
10 So they impaled Haman on the pole that he had set up for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king died down.
And they hang Haman upon the tree that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the fury of the king hath lain down.

< Esther 7 >